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The Morphosyntax of Gender

Online ISBN:
9780191760129
Print ISBN:
9780199679935
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Morphosyntax of Gender

Ruth Kramer
Ruth Kramer

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, Georgetown University
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Published online:
22 October 2015
Published in print:
1 August 2015
Online ISBN:
9780191760129
Print ISBN:
9780199679935
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Phi features are crucial for syntax and morphology, and number and person have been the focus of a significant amount of theoretical research. However, gender has received less attention, with the result that critical questions concerning its morphosyntax remain open. This book presents a cross-linguistic analysis of gender that aims to address these open questions. The book argues that gender features are syntactically located on the n head (“little n”), which serves to nominalize category-neutral roots. Those gender features are either interpretable (in the case of natural gender) or uninterpretable (like the gender of an inanimate noun in Spanish). Adopting Distributed Morphology, the book lays out how the gender features on n map onto the gender features relevant for morphological exponence. The analysis is motivated with an in-depth case study of Amharic, which poses challenges for previous gender analyses and provides clear support for gender on n. The proposals generate a typology of two- and three-gender systems, and the various types are illustrated with a genetically diverse set of languages. Finally, further evidence for gender being on n is provided from case studies of Somali and Romanian, as well as from the interaction of gender with nominalizations and declension class. Overall, the book provides one of the first large-scale, cross-linguistically oriented, theoretical approaches to the morphosyntax of gender.

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